T64 Phylogenetic Paleobiology: Exploring Macroevolutionary Trends with Evolutionary Trees II

Sunday, 4 November 2018
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Room 142

AN EARLY ORDOVICIAN VERTEBRATE FROM THE FEZOUATA LAGERSTÄTTE OF MOROCCO

Paper number: T64-1
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 1:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Authors

Abstract

A diversity of exceptionally preserved invertebrates has been recovered from the Early Ordovician Fezouata formations of Morocco. These fossils offer an unprecedented window into the transition from Cambrian Burgess Shale-type faunas to the Paleozoic fauna, and have provided key insights into basal panarthropod, annelid, and molluskan interrelationships. Here we report the first evidence of a Fezouata vertebrate and consider its implications for early vertebrate evolution in a phylogenetic context. Together with conodonts and the unusual genus Anatolepis, which occur in the Cambrian, these remains are among the oldest known crown vertebrates.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 50, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2018AM-323032

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